No Wimps Allowed On Wild Surviving Nugent

Ted Nugent, musical wild man and avid hunter, in a period of four days this summer reduced a group of city-dwelling strangers to sniveling ranch hands.

It was all for his VH1 special, Surviving Nugent, and he makes no apologies for how he treated the rookie wilderness adventurers.

"I invented the middle finger," said Nugent, whose hits include Cat Scratch Fever and Wango Tango. "I had to arbitrarily, subjectively and knee-jerkingly toss people out, which I did."

The reality show, airing throughout the week (the next encores are today at 11 a.m. and 10 p.m.), follows players who lived in a barn at Nugent's 2,000-acre Michigan ranch.

They competed to keep up with the rocker's unorthodox farm games and mercurial taste in the hope of driving off with the top prize, a Dodge Ram pickup and $25,000.

Nugent, a fervent defender of the rights of hunters and gun owners, didn't make it easy for them. Within minutes of meeting the ragtag contestants -- who included a vegan -- he banished one player for wearing cologne and later kicked out another for being wimpy.

Nugent also got son Rocco, wife Shemane and ranch hand buddy Big Jim in on the act.

"This is not only the road less traveled, but the swamp uncharted," Nugent said. "I wanted to teach them that a hands-on conservation lifestyle can be very attractive and very gratifying."

That said, Nugent showed players some of the worst that nature has to offer. Challenges included skinning a wild boar, retrieving decoy ducks from a swamp and identifying types of dung.

Players slept on cots in a barn and were awakened by an ear-splitting rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner on electric guitar, courtesy of the Motor City Madman.

"I was surprised at how desperately these people wanted to win the truck and the money," Nugent said.

Contestant Jack Benza, a part-time actor who claims to be a reality-show regular, was underwhelmed by Nugent's tactics.

"I respect the way that he lives, but it didn't impress me," said Benza, 32. "But it made me realize there's another world out there."